Club Regatta 2012

Yes. Yes, we were late for our club regatta. We slipped off our mooring well after the start of the first race of the weekend. The sequence above [thanks John] shows us motoring for Capernaum, with a gaggle of club yachts racing towards us.

We gave it some beans and stayed well out of the way, but with the tide rushing up the River Forth aided and abetted by a noticeable Easterly …we got a bit damp around the edges in the process.

A few minutes later we were alongside at Capernaum. We tied-up, ate some lunch, and before long all of  the yachts returned to their moorings in the harbour. Most crew/club members headed directly to the clubhouse for a barbie on the lawn, but as we were ‘alongside’ we diligently waited with our Macwester Malin until she took the ground.

By the time we arrived at the clubhouse there was more “bar” than “becue”. We needn’t have worried too much about missing all the excitement, as our attempt at ‘showing-face-to-be-sociable-then-returning-to-the-boat-to-tinker-around-with-the-depth-log’ failed miserably. The wall to the East of the garden provided protection from the wind and we all enjoyed a great time in the sunshine. Eventually the barbecue fizzled out mid-evening, and one or two friends came back onboard our Macwester Malin for a night-cap in the cockpit.

By midnight, the wind subsided and we had a really peaceful night in the aft-cabin hardly noticing the tide lifting us up and down. The wind returned next morning while we had a leisurely breakfast, but as the broker who sold us our 32ft Macwester Malin ketch in the Netherlands last year pointed out …”you need the wind to sail”.

Unfortunately due to other commitments we had to leave just as day two of the regatta was beginning. We would have loved to stay, but reasoned that as the tides are moving towards the evening we might get back onboard once or twice later in the week. Fingers crossed!